Forms & Information

Ask An Expert

Q: How long does it take for breast cancer to grow? My doctor just examined my breasts a month ago (no lumps), and today I found a lump. Is it possible that breast cancer could have developed so quickly?

Answer from the expert staff of breast cancer research at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center at Providence Portland Medical Center:

Q: I'm undergoing chemo, and though I am experiencing heavy-duty fatigue, I am also suffering from insomnia! Sometimes it's hard to fall asleep; other nights I wake up around 3 a.m. for an hour or two. My medical oncologist said chemo can disrupt the sleep-wake cycle and prescribed Ambien. I don't like the idea of relying on a sleeping pill. Anything else I can do?

Q: “It has been two weeks since I was diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, and I have not had my MRI, PET, CT or follow-up. Everyone says, ‘You have time.’ How do they know I have time? How do they know that my cancer cells aren’t dividing right now? Why aren’t breast cancers taken out immediately and patients treated for any cancer spread right away?”

Watchful waiting is a treatment choice for some older men who learn they have prostate cancer in their later years. It means that you and your doctor will watch your cancer to see if it causes any symptoms or appears to be growing. It may seem odd to have cancer and not treat it, but sometimes waiting is the best choice because of the side effects of treatment.

Providence Health & Services in Oregon is a not-for-profit Catholic network of hospitals, care centers, health plans, physicians, clinics, home health care and affiliated services guided by a Mission of caring that the Sisters of Providence began in the West nearly 160 years ago.